Blondie-Wan

Quite some time ago I commented on the forum description, pointing out a number of things I thought could be improved, and though a pretty fair amount of discussion followed, nothing ever came of it. In the thread I've linked you'll find a number of suggestions for what the description should say; while I don't pretend to know which is best, I do think at a minimum that: a) the themes should be listed in some sort of order (alphabetical being an obvious option, though chronological is another one that might work); b) "Toy Story 3" should be changed to just "Toy Story" if it's going to be kept at all; and c) "Spiderman" should be either given its correct spelling ("Spider-Man") or folded into "Marvel" or just "Superheroes" (and if the latter, the same should be done with "Batman").

A couple more things... While I do think they'd like to have a bit of good news each review period, I think it's safe to say they won't go to any and all lengths to ensure it - if an entire review batch is full of wildly risky sets and they don't have any "still under consideration" sets from previous periods waiting in the wings, they're not going to approve something super-impractical and risk losing money on a product just to be able to tell fans "here's what we're making this time". They'll be honest and say "we just didn't have something with a good business case this time around" (or rather, they won't say anything since they no longer discuss specific reasons for declining proposals, but whatever they do say will at least be consistent with their reasoning - "we just weren't able to approve any this time; sorry about that," or some such thing). Also, I think the Apple Store probably won't make it, though not necessarily because they won't want to - as they say, other brands can still be represented in sets as long as it's not purely the brand being sold, but a solid model of something that simply happens to be branded (otherwise they wouldn't have all those Maersk and Volkswagen sets), and I think they're also well aware of fan demand for a LEGO Apple Store, not just from this proposal but from other avenues as well. However, Apple is of course extremely brand-conscious itself, and its approach to branding for more than a decade now (ever since around when Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1996) has been one of utter control and self-management, to the point that they no longer really do the sort of brand licensing that once made it possible to buy things like Apple logo T-shirts, coffee mugs, etc. from third-party licensees. As much as we as LEGO fans might bristle at the idea, I think Apple would probably look at licensing a construction toy or model kit or whatever of one of its stores (or one of its products) as brand dilution, even if we ourselves might consider it an honor to be LEGO-ized. I suspect the store will therefore get nixed, not at LEGO's end, but at Apple's... though I'd honestly love to be proven wrong, and for both sides to agree it's a great idea. I'd personally love to be able to plunk an official LEGO modular building-style Apple Store in my LEGO city.

I doubt this is the case, at least with regards to Star Wars. For one thing, there aren't actually that many properties which are really all that similar to it, story-wise / thematically, aside from having spaceships and space battles. Moreover, there are in fact other companies which do produce toys from Star Wars as well as other franchises of the sorts you describe - Hasbro makes both Star Wars and Star Trek action figures and related playsets and vehicles, for example. Not that it matters, of course - Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek both have other obstacles preventing LEGO sets based on them from happening. Hasbro's Star Trek license includes construction toys as well as the aforementioned action figures and whatnot, and they do in fact offer a number of KRE-O Star Trek sets. And Battlestar Galactica (the recent incarnation, anyway) is likely seen as a bit too dark and adult for TLG's target audience, in much the same way as Firefly / Serenity and Shaun of the Dead.

I think the query might have been more about calling him "Hispanic," which I don't think is an attribute that he can adopt by simply putting on a moustache, poncho, and fedora. According to the link you yourself just posted, he's Western Emmet. I imagine there'll be a few of them offered for sale / trade in the forums here. I hope to acquire a few more from my own viewings of the movie, and if I get more than I want for myself I'm going to offer some for trade myself.

Well, I know that; that's why I said " Are we waiting until all sixteen are known?" I was asking why it doesn't list the several figures that are known, under a heading like "Known characters."

I see I'm not the only one who wanted it to wear to one's first showing! I stopped at a Walmart on my way out of town last weekend to see an advance screening, but the store didn't have any of the shirt, so I wound up wearing one of my old LEGO Star Wars shirts. I'd still like to find this one, though.

When will this thread's initial post be updated with a list of the Minifigures characters? Are we waiting until all sixteen are known?

I will attest to its awesomeness. My fiancee and I went to an advance screening in Orlando on the 1st and had a blast. I think most viewers will love it, especially the sorts of people who frequent this site.

Yikes! But what do mean, exactly - the hips being loose when connected to the torso, or the hips/legs assembly being loose by itself (I.e., the legs coming off the hips)? Well, this isn't part of the "regular" line, but instead part of The LEGO Movie line, and doesn't really reflect what the numbered series will have... although TLG is undoubtedly aware of the increasing demand for female minifigure representation, and presumably would like to meet it.

I threw three in a Shop at Home order a few weeks ago, and got a fistful of presidents - one Lincoln, two Business. Had my first three minifigures from this line been cherry-picked by feeling packets I wouldn't have gone with a duplicate right off the bat like that, but I don't mind; President Business is actually mostly a pretty useful figure, and I plan to get a few more for the torsos, legs and Octan mugs. After my fiancée and I got out of the advance screening yesterday we were swept up with The LEGO Movie fervor, and went to the LEGO Store at Downtown Disney, where we both got Benny posters and I picked up another nine minifigures - two scribble-faced Cops and two Taco Tuesday guys, and one apiece of Marsha the mermaid, the guy in a panda suit, and each of the three robots - along with Cloud Cuckoo Palace, the non-TLM set Surfer Rescue, and the Piece of Resistance polybag and the Batman poster. I do plan to get the entire Minifigures line (including at least a few more duplicates), along with as many of the boxed sets and promo polybags as I can. We'll see...

That would be wonderful, but four minifigures is already a lot for a set otherwise based around a single car. I think they'll want to keep it to four to keep the cost and price down. The four ghostbusters themselves are all that were specified in the CUUSOO project anyway. That said... I certainly would love to see Janine Melnitz and / or Onionhead/Slimer included, though the latter is probably right out as he'd probably be deemed to require one or more new molds to be done properly.

Well... There actually are a great many additional subjects from Back to the Future that would work well as sets. The project creators of the one extant set have done a whole slew of them, in fact.

Yesterday we attended the advance screening I mentioned earlier. This one was in Orlando, and presented by LEGOLAND Florida; annual pass holders such as my fiancée and I got to enter a contest to win tickets, and she won. Hooray! It turned out there was indeed a little swag - a small version of the main movie poster, plus the Radio DJ Robot minifigure (the same one offered through the AMC Stubs promo and the Walmart preorder promo for the videogame). We also picked up a different poster that the theater had itself. Honestly, the DJ Robot figure was the promo item I was least worried about getting since we have an AMC close by and we're already Stubs members, but I'm still very glad to have gotten it all the same. As for the movie... Wow! I was giddy with delight from beginning to end. I won't spoil anything, but I will say it's mainly very funny, with a few moments that are unexpectedly touching, and it will require multiple viewings to catch everything.

I think it might be time to start using spoiler tags when discussing the movie...

Hey, congratulations! If you don't mind a request, would you mind posting about your experience with CUUSOO, from the perspective of someone who got a set to pass the review? We haven't really heard that story yet, except through the brief comments found in the set instruction manuals. I for one would be really interested in knowing what it's like (how further dealings between you and TLG go, etc.). Just the fact that you found out through the public announcement like the rest of us is an interesting revelation, for example...

Not too shabby! Why isn't this thread in Licensed?

Right, but of course the LEGO CUUSOO project was specifically based upon the movie (in the specific look of the visual elements, in being named after something called simply "The Wizard of Oz" rather than "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," and in commemorating the 75th anniversary of the movie rather than the 114th anniversary of the book).

Oh, that's great to hear! I'm going to a preview screening myself on Saturday morning, and I'm glad of that, because I don't know how much longer I can wait! And afterwards I'll hit the LEGO Store...

I thought the goal of CUUSOO was to have a mechanism for LEGO fans to be able to present to TLG their ideas for sets they'd like to see and then garner demonstrative support for them, for those fans who come up with ideas TLG uses to be able to benefit financially as well as by being able to get the sets they want, and for TLG to have an additional source of product ideas that includes a built-in indication of market interest. I don't think "creativity and originality" specifically was ever the goal; TLG already offers products that mesh with that. CUUSOO (roughly, "wish" or "wish into existence," remember) is just about a chance to get something one wants to see produced as an actual set (though creativity and originality is certainly a part of that, as with anything LEGO).

The Wizard of Oz isn't in the public domain. It's one of the crown jewels of the Warner Bros. catalog (originally MGM, of course), and it is absolutely still in their ownership, but of course TLG has an ongoing licensing relationship with Warner. I think it would have been a lovely set, and I don't know why it was declined. My best guess is that they decided it would require new parts to do it justice.

Licenses currently account for under half of all CUUSOO projects to have passed review so far (three out of seven). That's substantial, to be sure, but I don't know how it consitutes a "focus" on them. Honestly, the last licensed CUUSOO set before this one was three sets earlier (the Back to the Future Delorean time machine, followed by the MSL Curiosity rover and the upcoming exo-suit mech). If anything, there's more of a "focus" on vehicles designed for scientific research and exploration, since the Shinkai 6500 submersible, the Hayabusa probe and the Curiosity rover all clearly fit this, as does the Delorean time machine (it's fictional, sure, and it's not the primary purpose to which it winds up being put in the movies, but that's still its in-universe raison d'être), and perhaps even the exo-suit as well, thus accounting for arguably as many as five of the seven confirmed sets in total. Clearly, the take-away lesson from most CUUSOO decisions (though not this one) is that if you want a set to pass, make it a vehicle designed for answering questions about the universe.

Once in a while, a "Sold Out" set does come back, too. More than once I've gotten sets that had previously been listed as sold out.

Aaaaaaaand now... Ghostbusters: 30th Anniversary is a go! The Female Minifigure Set is still under consideration, and the Landrover that was still being considered from an earlier period has finally been declined. It appears that although of the two Ghostbusters projects they're officially doing only the one called "30th Anniversary," the overall content of the set will actually be closer to the other project, in that it will be "just" the ECTO-1 car and the four Ghostbusters themselves, without the converted fire station base found in the 30th Anniversary project proposal. One would think they'd therefore choose the other (or both, in the sense of declaring the set to be inspired by both projects and giving each a share of the profits), but apparently not. That must sting a lot for the submitter of the declined one, though the reasons (30th Ann. being first to hit 10k votes, plus the final set's car model being closer to it than to the other version) do at least make sense.

OT, but wow, Fedro has a really sweet Castle setup (assuming those earlier pics in his stream are of his own personal setup, as appears to be the case). Agreed... though in fairness, Emmet, Vitruvius and so on haven't really been around in physical LEGO history, either. Most of the movie's major characters are new, with a few exceptions such as Batman, arguably Benny, and so on. I'm not. If this movie (and theme) are celebrating LEGO's history, it makes sense that the various figures would represent the characters just as they appeared in sets before these. On the contrary, as delighted as I am to get all the new figures in these sets, I'd be even more tickled if there were more faithfully-recreated characters from older sets, and the more like their original selves the better. I actually kind of wish Johnny Thunder weren't updated at all, but instead used the exact same prints as one of the original JTs, with no back printing (even though I have a few older Johnnys already). But that said, I'm still thrilled to get this new one as well. Same here. I absolutely love all these sets, and I feel despair over my inability to afford everything, but at the same time I'm just overjoyed at the obvious love that went into them all (and the movie itself, it appears). I cannot wait for the movie, and I'm going to do my level best to get as much of this line as I can.

Ooh, that's pretty sweet! A nice, clean build, and quite recognizable.